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I sat down, angrily staring at the wall across from me.

"You're the fucking don Ric! How can you be so irresponsible?" My father ran his hands through his hair trying not to lose his patience. "The alliance and friendship between the America and the Cosa Nostra has lasted 50 years. We can't risk a war because of you two fighting like children."

"You need to tell your friend to control his daughter. I know she'll stop at nothing to kill me." My fists balled up even thinking about her. Ariel fucking Black.

"We have to fix this before it's too late." He pulled out his phone and dialled a number as I left the room.

***Ariel POV***

I sat in my uncles office as he rammed on about the alliance between the Cosa Nostra the Americans, and about my parents.

"Ariel, your parents died 8 years ago, you can't allow this riot to go on any further."

"When you take my place, you can't keep hating the don. That'll break the alliance." He muttered to me. Inside, I knew he was right. He was right about everything. If I continued to act like this, I could put my family's lives at risk. I don't want to lose anyone else I love. But the stubbornness that claimed my heart would never agree.

"Why are you protecting him?" I calmly asked. He exhaled and paced around the room.

"That's not your concern."

"Why? Aren't you hurt that he killed your brother?" He rubbed his head, clearly stressed by my questioning. "He was a child when it happened."

"He was a teenager. He should have known."

He sat down, a heavy silence settling in.

"Your parents weren't good people, Ariel."

A sardonic breath escaped my mouth. "And what are we?"

"They wanted to hurt you Ariel."

"Bullshit."

He rubbed his temples, hesitating to speak before the words escaped his mouth. "They were child traffickers."

And there it was.

The drop of my heart.

His words echoed around the room, bouncing off of the walls and cutting into my skin.

When he lifted his eyes to meet mine, I knew it was the truth.

"They planned to sell you. You were a cute kid Ariel. Bright green eyes, innocent. They wanted to take advantage of that."

"You're lying."

"Why do you think you spent all of your time here as a child? Because I wanted to protect you, from them."

"They were good people."

"That's what they made everyone think. You'd never seen them do anything bad. Why do you think I never talk about them? I spent years trying to take down their trafficking ring. It was one of the largest in the world Ariel."

My eyes dropped to the ground, as the twisted realisation dawned upon me. Only one word kept echoing in my head.

Trafficking.

I shot from my seat, ran to the bathroom. Hung my head over the toilet and threw up. I refused to believe it. It can't be.

I had been kept in the dark about the truth of my parents. And now it was consuming me.

I was never this light hearted. But the thought that my parents were going to sell me to some creep with sick sexual fantasies made me sick to the stomach.

Does everything in this life have to be so grim?

*************************************************

Me and Irina stood in the elevator and pressed the button which lead towards the loft.

It was our own little paradise, with a bar, giant tv, hot tub etc. We stepped out of the elevator and Irina plopped on the couch as I grabbed some snacks.

"Do you think we'll ever get to be normal?" Irina asked.

"Why would you want to be?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Haven't you ever thought of, you know, getting married without it being arranged?"

My lips formed a thin line as I narrowed my eyes at her. "Who is it?"

"What?"

"Who's the guy?"

She rolled her eyes dismissively and looked at the tv. "Shh, Romeo was about to declare his love for Beverly."

"Well I'll have to find out later. Uncle wants us in his office." I said, showing her the text from Jett.

We both huffed and headed downstairs. When I opened the door, my lips parted seeing who it was sitting inside.

The whole Romano family tree.

Gianni, Ricardo and his brother Rocco Romano turned their attention towards us.

Rocco was Ricardo's fraternal (unidentical) twin, and though they shared similar features, they looked different from each other.

Gianni stood with my uncle behind his desk and had his arms crossed while Rocco sat in boredom. Ricardo seemed pissed and was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed as if he had been waiting for a while. I should have taken longer to get here.

"I'll get to the point." My uncle said as he rested his hands on the table. We sat down, the silence heavy and unpredictable.

"Children, me and Gianni have talked about it and to fix your little rivalry, you'll all be working together."

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